To Tempt Fate
by Kyra1
Summary: Spike and Julia are two souls bound by a terrible. When given a second chance they must decide whether to tempt fate's wrath and change their destinies.


**To Tempt Fate**

**Rating: **PG-13

**Summary**: Does destiny really exist? Do all roads really lead to the same ending? Spike and Julia are two souls bound by a terrible fate that must decide whether to tempt fate's wrath and change their future or follow the same path that led to their untimely deaths.

**Author's Note:** It seems that I've been putting off writing this story for a long time. This idea has been jumping around inside my head for close to two years. I thought it was time that I did something closer to the actual canon so this is what came up, though its not entirely correct.

My writing style has been changing a lot recently since I took two writing classes last year and am taking another now. My time that it takes to write a story had considerably shortened with the new "program" one of my professors has introduced me to. With that said, I hope to have it finished by Monday at the latest.

When this is finished I plan to immediately return to my other stories and finally finish them. OMG, I said finish them. This story will only be three chapters, maybe four at max, though definitely no more. I hope you like it and here it is.

**Disclaimer: **Yes I own them. You heard me, they're all mine and the company stole my idea . . . er...no. That's not right, though it's what I wish. Of course I don't own them, all Cowboy Bebop characters belong to whatever company made them and their respective owners which is in fact, not me.

"∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞" Represents a jump in time

"xxxxxxxxx" Change in character

**Chapter One**

**Dreams of Escape**

Feathers were everywhere. It was all he could see. There were white feathers everywhere, dancing around her, floating in the air. She would've thought them pretty. She would've laughed at the angels. She would've done so many things. She would have.

Though he could only stand and watch as her body pitched forward, blond hair trailing behind her as she fell to the ground, his mind raced with curses. He lifted his gun, catching the faceless monster that had taken Julia from him off guard before he could fire another shot. It was done. Spike hurried to her side, flipping her body, smoothing away her hair from her face. They were finally escaping, together. They were finally going to be free. It was suppose to have been happy, endless, filled with many more days.

He knelt, holding her frail body as she hiccupped, body struggling, fighting to live, fighting to hold on to him. She wanted to live. She wanted to live, with him, but then she smiled, whispering lightly. "This is . . . a dream." And he held her until there was nothing left.

He held her until there was nothing left of her or himself. He was holding her when he returned to the Bebop for the last time. He was still holding her when he went for Vicious. He was holding her, always holding her as she faded, even as he stumbled down the stairs to the court of syndicate men that awaited the outcome, his vision darkening, breath shortening and his legs weakening into heavy lumps, until there was nothing left of himself but a finger and a word. "Bang."

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

It was white. Everything was white. Warm and glowing, littered with yellow and gray swirling about him in a silvery white maelstrom of warmth. He hated it. There was no time, no sound save for the soft hum of the winds from the colors, and there were feathers caught in the maelstrom, swirling forward towards him into his eyes.

Then, suddenly, it began to clear, or fade rather. The white darkening, growing father away and the soft hum growing to a large rumble. It was gray, smeared with black and brown, then ebony streaked it and the shadows moved in. He was not certain whether this change was welcome or if he wished for the blearing white, so he moved forward or rather urged to follow, but the shadows held him firm. And the hum of winds grew louder as the maelstrom was upon him. Black as things he had never seen with its rumbling throat, the feel of its grip tightening and then there was nothing but the echoing of what he had once known as rain and a strange pressure.

"Oh! It moved!"

He twitched, the darkness tightening, now streaked with deep gold, the sound of cars and a stench he knew as alcohol. The maelstrom subsided.

"Should we get help?"

His body felt anchored by something he couldn't see and then a new pressure began in his head.

"Quick, check his pockets!"

Testing an eye, his head roared with blearing white again, so he reached forward grasping for it and held tightly.

"H-hey! Lemme go!"

This time he opened both eyes. Two faces peered down at him from underneath a mop of dark chestnut hair. Spike loosened his grip on the boy, who gladly ripped his arm free, both disappearing from vision. He laid there for a moment, staring up at the dark sky, rain belching down on him and the boys who could be heard whispering worriedly to each other a few feet away.

"D-do you need help?

Spike pushed himself up, head lurching in the motion, helping him to identify the source of the alcohol smell. Himself. His head felt like cattle were galloping around inside him. Lots of the damn things.

From a few feet away against the building on the opposite side of the alley, the boys were watching him through narrowed eyes as though they had found someone famous and weren't really sure whether to believe if it was him. Feeling outnumbered he narrowed his eyes in return and shook his head no amongst the cardboard boxes in which he had been splayed. One boy looked relieved; the other with darker features stepped away.

"You don' look su' good mister." The relieved one said.

"I don't feel so good." Spike grumbled hoarsely, shifting the long rubbery legs beneath him in order to stand. A bottle of liquor rolled away from his body as he stood, gun tumbling out beneath him on the pavement.

The boys' faces whitened and both turned fleeing down the alley, but not before the darker one could grab the bottle of liquor.

"Wha- Hey! Come here with that!" Spike started to fall into pace behind them, though his legs didn't feel sturdy enough to follow, so instead he turned to retrieve his gun and stumbled towards the street where cars could be seen swishing by in blurs of color even in the late hour light and rain. As he neared the cars something rattled in the broken window to his left and he spun, gun already in hand. A pigeon took to the air splaying a tuft of white feathers into the air to flip about behind it.

He had seen that before, not quite the same, but he had definitely seen that before.

A red sign flickered on the corner of the wall to the building to his left at the end of the road. He moved towards it, squinting to read the letters through the blur in his mind. "Del Ray's"

Julia. He had been here before, two days ago when he went to meet Julia in the graveyard. Graveyard? Julia was dead, having died in his arms. He had held her in his arms until there was nothing left of either of them except for an empty shell, then he'd went to Vicious. Had he survived? Had he made it out alive, back to the Bebop where undoubtedly Jet patched him up as always and sent him on his way?

The glass door to Del Ray's slid open easily, and he made his way towards the bar where the bartender, a chubby bearded man with tiny eyes and a large grin, stared at him in disbelief. "Back again?" The man laughed, an event that made his eyes if possible seem to shrink away further than the small slits they had already been.

"Again?" He chose a seat in the middle of the bar beside a young man with slick hair and clothes that wafted arrogance. This man with the squinty eyes, the bartender, he was here then as well. Though, he rationalized, wouldn't the bartender be here all the time?

The bartender set a glass in front of Spike without asking his order, most likely able to remember people's drinks over there faces, a common occupational hazard among bartenders. "I thought you looked like you were heading in for the night."

Spike shrugged, glancing at the younger man beside him that suddenly erupted in laughter, exclaiming. "You're dreamin'!"

He had heard that before, cinnamon eyes were intent on the man beside him in the smoky and panel walled room. The man was probably a regular, also here two days ago.

No. He had died. He remembered dying, Julia dying, but he was alive now. This was not purgatory. Had he dreamed in the alley, a dream that he remembered so vividly? This was him alive. He was alive, and two days before their deaths.. Spike Spiegel had never been a religious man, nor was he a man to openly display such happiness, but if this was really what he thought it to be then he might actually visit a church for reasons other than to search for someone. He would not walk the same path that he had last time. He would escape with Julia. He had finally awoken, and the path that did not lead to freedom had already been mapped. All he needed was Julia, and finally they would escape, together.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The swordfish coasted into the docking bay of the Bebop, a large dark room that Spike could remember disappearing into for solace when he wished to be alone. He leapt from the hatch after powering the Swordfish II down and moved into the kitchen where Jet, apron-ized, stood over a stove, skillet in hand as he worked to create one of his self-acclaimed masterpieces.

Spike leaned against the doorframe digging a pack of cigarettes from his pocket trying to decide whether to go for the jugular or be less direct and try and talk Jet into inadvertently telling him. He went for the jugular. "Where's Faye?"

"She's gone, Spike." Jet didn't glance up, one hand continuing to shake the skillet while the other flipped the peppers with a spatula. "Three weeks now, remember?" He paused chewing his lip thoughtfully before continuing. "Probably gone for good this time. She took all her stuff. At least we've got more space what with her and Ed and Ein gone."

The ex-syndicate member didn't miss the way the larger man rushed over the words, knowing the emptiness behind the voice, though he chose not to comment, pulling a cigarette from the pack and flicking his lighter on. He puffed silently for a moment, listening to the hiss of food on the stove and the eerie silence of just the two of them on the ship.

"I need to find her. Where would she go?"

That, however, did cause the burly man to look up. A strange expression was on his face, eyes wide and lips tightened. "Don't know." Jet finally said, having at last found words. Crossing his arms he turned to face Spike. "She left same time as Ed."

"After they'd been disappearing together." Spike had already picked up on the thought.

"Mhm."

"Where were we then?"

Jet ran a hand across the back of his head as though it had some ability to help him think. "Earth, I think." He turned back to the stove, still watching him from the corners of his eyes. "What do 'you' need with Faye?"

"I just need to find her." He pushed away from the doorframe, turning his back to leave, though speaking over his should as Jet nodded. "I need to know something."

There was silence between them for a moment, then Jet asked. "Faye though?"

"Julia's with her."

"What?"

"Julia's with Faye. I've got to find her. Why?"

The bald man shrugged, lifting the skillet to shake its contents once again. "Just wondering why you'd look for Faye."

Spike gave a derisive laugh. "I wouldn't." He stepped out of the kitchen and down the hallway, but not without hearing the soft almost hopeful and unconvinced laugh of Jet Black.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The hanger was dark, but Spike was still able to maneuver through it without bumping into anything more than three times. He was already slipping the brown leather gloves he always wore when piloting his craft onto his hands when the door leading back inside the Bebop unexpectedly opened.

Jet's gruff voice echoed over the metal floors as he climbed up the side of his ship. "I was thinking..."

"Yeah?"

"Try the western continent." The ex-ISSP officer actually appeared slightly embarrassed as he voiced the words. "Faye mentioned it several times after we got that package for her. I thought it might be a place to start." Eyes locked on Spike, seated in the Swordfish, mouth slightly open he seemed as though he wished to say something else.

Spike busied himself with the controls, powering up his ships systems. "Jet?"

Moving beneath the left wing of the ship so as to have a better view of him, he crossed his arms. "Just try and be diplomatic about this." He paused, before more words abruptly began pouring out to cover the gentleness of the first. "Faye still owes me for that invoice."

Between puffs of smoke, Spike laughed and a tapped a button on the console, the hatch to his ship beginning to descend around him. Below him he could see the man he had always thought as a close friend, staring as though he was either unsure of how to proceed or as if he hadn't said the words he had set out to. "Will do." He called before the hatch snapped shut. He waited until Jet had returned inside the ship before awakening his sleeping beast and springing into space.

Earth. Had Julia been hiding in the ruins of that wrecked planet? He couldn't imagine her there, in a place that was poverty stricken and probably unsafe for reasons other than the syndicate, though he remembered she had been part of the organization. Julia had helped chase several enemies of the syndicate, fought men twice her size and hidden with them in a one room shack, though it still seemed wrong, unnatural even to imagine her in a world of destruction. It was easier to remember her in a place of business quality, sophisticated, a place full of movement. She would have hated the desolation, the loneliness and isolation, shut up inside an endless ruin, more welcome to roam the busy streets of Mars with no thought of seclusion. Only, if she felt there was no other choice, no other path would she have hidden. No, Julia was always a fighter.

A tap on the communications device and Faye's transmission code flicked over the screen before his eyes, the one Jet had assigned as an emergency. It was the last of the last resort links, seldom used though not from expenses or emergencies but because it seldom worked since it had been a joint creation between Jet and Edward, mostly Ed who had left before its completion. It was a link that was capable of overriding any other transmission the receiver was already in, or rather that was the theory.

"Faye." He spoke into the air. Waiting for a response he sniffed out the remains of his cigarette in the small try to his lower right. "Pick up Faye." He checked the link which actually read as operational for once in its use. "Faye." He growled to himself, clutching the ship's steering mechanism tighter. "Damnit, Faye! Where are you?"

The screen remained blank, silent to his growing frustration. "Always around when not useful and never around when needed." Spike snapped the transmission off, eyes narrowing on the growing blue and green orb ahead of him. Jet had said the western continent, but the graveyard, their meeting place, was on Mars. He shifted, ship changing course. Mars, she had to be there.

Julia. Could she really be there with Faye?

×××××××××××××××××××

She remembered the wind. It was always chilly here, that was the first thing she had the impression of, a breeze that chilled the soul as well as the bones, not from its sheer power but the silence of it. The breeze lifted a strand of her hair, tickling her nose to fully rouse her from the darkness her mind had been in. Julia lifted an elegantly slender hand and replaced the stray hair behind her ear.

Despite the breeze it was still a pleasant day. She would have liked to have lain on the bench all day, though the possibility of being discovered was slimmer in this god forsaken neighborhood, it wasn't entirely impossible.

Tired eyes lifted to the sky that was no longer a crisp blue but a slate color that the sky would fade to as it became late afternoon. The sun would be setting soon. She would have to be heading to her new home soon. A bitter laugh escaped her throat at the thought of calling the dingy half collapsed shack with its faded curtains and stained carpet home.

Julia pulled herself upright on the bench, crossing her legs as she surveyed the small park. Well it wasn't really a park more so than just a patch of grass amongst some of the trees. Across from her bench in the center of the grassy field was a group of children kicking a ball around and yelping. She smiled pulling her black trench coat closers, hand instinctively snaking their way into her pockets.

One of the children had tripped, his friends gathering around as they gawked at his scrape. There was something about this, the children. The boy screamed as another child poked his knee.

A group of pigeons took to the air in fear of the sound to her left, forgetting the old man who had been feeding them, their white and gray feathers flapping about in the air around them. The sun streaked through the feathers, each suddenly so clear, so beautiful, so . . . her chest burned.

Feathers.

_Feathers were everywhere. It was all she could see. There were white feathers everywhere, dancing around her, floating in the air as her body suddenly heavy pitched forward. _

They had been there on the rooftop. Dozens of them fluttering around her. They had been beautiful floating in the sunlight. Her chest burned. She had fallen. Spike had held her until the pain ebbed and the darkness claimed her. Was it all a dream? Her chest burned. It was all too real. Had she survived and her memories just now returning?

Julia stood, spinning about searching, knowing that Spike would be near if so. He was not. She turned from the small patch of green amongst all the brown and moved the small distance to her fire cloud colored car. It had not been a dream and she had not survived.

She, Julia had never been the type to have such irrational thoughts other than that of leaving Vicious for Spike and she was not the type to throw her emotions on display. She had found it more to her and men's liking, this self-composed, proper way of life, but she could not stop the beginnings of a smile, not the small upturn of a lip that she usually gave, but a full tooth glimpsing smile as she seated herself in the car. A glance in the rearview mirror gave her the chance to smile at herself. "Who ever said fate's not without a sense of cruelty?"

The convertible lurched across the parking lot, finding its way onto the cracked street that would lead her to the south where this Faye would undoubtedly be. She would speak to her just as she had that day, and when she would meet Spike, they would disappear. _Forgive me, Annie. _They would not say goodbye this time. They would not be caught escaping. This time they would escape, together.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Julia swerved the car onto the road, glancing in the mirror to ensure that the other vehicles did the same. They veered around the corner behind her, earning a smile as she continued, motor roaring its displeasure at the sudden pressure.

The events had to be the same. If anything changed, she might not see him again.

Ahead the spaceport was coming into view, though no figure could be seen on the side of the road until she was nearly upon it. She smiled watching the other woman dash to the edge, arms lifting to take aim at the car behind her. There was a loud crack and Julia could see one of the cars spin out of control, temporarily blocking the other. The brakes protested in the stop to allow Faye entry to the car.

Neither spoke, Julia well aware that words wouldn't be needed to get the bounty huntress to jump in, only a meeting of the eyes to accept this momentary partnership. The smaller woman leapt in and she pumped the gas, chase resuming as the other car began to close the distance between them. Eyes locked on the road, Julia did not need to know that the younger woman had turned, leaning against the seat to steady her aim.

There was another report and the car behind them began to fishtail, hubcap rolling away

seconds before the entire vehicle was caught in the swing and began to flip.

Only a mile or so down the road, she pulled off to take a break in the same place she had the first time these events had taken place. She glanced sideways at the woman that would reunite her with Spike. "You saved me."

"Same here." She stated, lighting herself a cigarette.

"You're a good shot." Julia leaned against the convertible, mind no longer on the act of replaying the scene. Wouldn't it be easier just to ask her? There was little use in reliving the entire incident. "What's your name?"

Slowly, the woman beside her let out a column of smoke. "Faye. Faye Valentine. It's a common name. You?"

"Julia." This was the second time she had watched the mixed expression of surprise and disbelief wash over the bounty huntress. This time, she nearly laughed. "It's also a common name." They stood in silence for a moment, until Julia finally turned to climb back into the vehicle and called over her shoulder. "Here, I'll drive you back."

Julia had driven back to the spaceport with little more than a word from the woman beside her, but as Faye climbed out of the convertible she began speaking. "I was getting bounties with that shot you know."

Eyes locked on the dark haired woman she felt a sudden rush or adrenaline. She had forgotten this part. She had forgotten the other path that had been presented to her.

"Although now I'm kind of off on a break, though we made a good team. It might be good to pair up with another woman. How about it? Wanna be my partner?"

Everything about the choice she had made led to untimely things happening to those she loved, including herself. Maybe, if her choices were different. Maybe destiny had wanted them to find each other in another way. Maybe there was no going back to what the two of them had always wanted. Maybe. Julia let her lips turn up, and lifted her eyes to the blushing sky where somewhere out there, she knew Spike was searching for her. She would have to believe that all roads would lead to him. It was all she had left to believe in.

Chocolate eyes, trembling and infinitely sad, returned to Faye, the woman who held her and Spike's future unaware fully in her small hands. Julia smiled, nodding faintly. "I'd like that."

**Author's Note: Well I hope you enjoyed this, because I'm having a blast working on this. Yes, I just thought it's ironic that Julia died after just finding Spike and she thinks fate isn't without a sense of cruelty. LOL Poor gal. Anyways, this is sort of the intro chapter, there's lots of character development and Faye and Jet are going to be present some in the future. **


End file.
